


Not A Human, Not A Unicorn

by moviefan_92



Category: The Last Unicorn (1982), The Last Unicorn - All Media Types, The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Tragedy, Centauri, Centaurs, Comfort/Angst, Dark Fantasy, Declarations Of Love, Drama, Drama & Romance, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Family Feels, Family Issues, Family Secrets, Fantasy, Gen, Heavy Angst, Light Angst, Love, Psychological Drama, Unicorns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 13:18:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16995735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moviefan_92/pseuds/moviefan_92
Summary: A short one-shot that takes place after the movie. After a series of unforeseen events that took place after the unicorns were freed, Amalthea reflects on her journey about what she learned and experienced. A surprising twist included.Drama/Fantasy/Family/Angst/Hurt & Comfort. Pairings: Amalthea and Lir.STORY COMPLETE





	Not A Human, Not A Unicorn

**Author's Note:**

> (A/N: Hello people. I recently went through what I like to call, a 'past obsession'. This is when I get into something, normally from my childhood, and really enjoy it. 'The Last Unicorn' was one of my favorite stories movies as a kid, and when that enjoyment came back to me, this story came to mind and wouldn't leave me alone until it was written down. So, here it is. A short one-shot of what happens after the movie.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing

**Originally posted on 08/17/08 at: _<https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4480499/1/Not-A-Human-Not-A-Unicorn>_**

   

 

**" NOT A UNICORN, NOT A HUMAN"**

Amalthea. She was the only unicorn with a name. Then again, she was the only unicorn for a lot of things. How many unicorns created unbreakable bonds of friendship with humans? How many unicorns even felt the emotions humans felt? Emotions such as regret and love were unknown to immortal creatures such as unicorns, for they had eternal life, and would thus be in a state of constant despair as their mortal friends passed on to the next realm. They could feel emotions such as sorrow and fondness, but it was not the same.

Amalthea was different. One couldn't tell just by looking. She still looked like every other unicorn. She still resembled a horse with one horn, with a few different characteristics that separated her from a common mare. The hooves, at the bottom of thin legs, were split like a deer's or a goat's, and the head was more pointed with a long slender neck and pointy ears. And like all other unicorns, the beautiful hair covering her body was the purest of white that sparkled and shined.

No, it wasn't her physical attributes that were different, but her emotions. Part of her was human, for she had once been human. She knew what it felt like to feel love and regret. And what she regretted more than anything was the loss of the life she could have had with her beloved.

Though she held deep regret for what happened in her past, there was something that came out of it that she could never regret.

"Mother?"

Amalthea's violet eyes shifted in the direction of the speaker and the love that other unicorn's did not possess filled them as she watched her beloved daughter approach. Like her, her daughter was different than other unicorns, emotionally as well as physically. Should one see her daughter, the thought of a unicorn wouldn't enter their mind. For her daughter resembled another immortal creature.

Centaur. That's what Amalthea's daughter resembled. None would ever believe that while in human form, during a single night of passion with her beloved, that she would conceive and birth a child as thus. Though her daughter called her 'Mother' no others believed that Amalthea was this creature, who all thought was a centaur, birthed her. Instead they believed that Amalthea had found an orphaned centaur, whom she took up as her daughter.

"Yes, Molly?" asked Amalthea, calling her daughter by name; the same name as a person very close to her went by.

Molly held a look of hurt and confusion in her eyes as she approached the unicorn. "Mother, I am confused. For the first time, I encountered another centaur. He took one look at me and said that as beautiful as I was, that I was not one of his kind. He asked me what I was and I told him that I was a centaur whose mother was a unicorn and that I had no father. He told me this was impossible and fled, declaring that he did not wish to be in the presence of a liar." Her eyes filled with tears. "What am I, Mother? What are we? Who was my father? You told me time and again that you would tell me when the time was right, yet still you remain silent."

Amalthea sighed and approached her daughter. It was true that if one knew what to look for that they would be able to tell the difference between her daughter and a true centaur. Her upper half was a mirror image of Amalthea's human form, straight down to the star shaped mark on her forehead. The only difference was her eyes. She had inherited her father's beautiful blue eyes. From the waist down, rather than the body of a horse, like true centaurs, she had the body of a unicorn. Amalthea merely called her a centaur, for she did not know what else to call her.

As her daughter stated, Amalthea had time and again avoided the topic of her daughter's father, for the topic, even now, was painful to speak of. Her beloved King Lir had long since passed on. Though it has been well over 70 years since she saw him, it was not age that took his life, such as it was with most mortals. He had been killed playing the hero, for that is what he was. Even in his old age, he tried to do the right thing, until he met his end when facing a griffin. With his death, his kingdom all but ended, for he had not taken a wife or sired an heir, not one that was capable of taking the thrown, for no human would accept his true child as a their ruler, if they even believed that she was his child.

Amalthea's eyes shined with great sorrow as she spoke. "Forgive me, my daughter. I had hoped to keep you ignorant of the truth, for I do not wish to burden you with the pain of loss."

Molly crossed her arms and gave her mother a determine look. "I have not been a child for over half a century. I am ready to know the truth. Please, keep it from me no longer."

As much as Amalthea hated to admit it, she knew that the time to tell her daughter had long since passed. Regardless of her child's eternal youth, she was what humans would declare to be an old woman. And she did deserve to know. Her father deserved to have his daughter know.

"Very well, I shall tell you what you wish to know, and a pray you don't hate me or your father for it, for our love was and is deeper than the deepest ocean." She looked up at the full moon and began her tale. "You know of our old friends Molly and Schmendrick."

Her daughter bowed her head. Yes, she remembered. They too had passed on to the Land of the Dead, though their children did still visit from time to time. The loss of such great friends had been hard on both of them, which only proved to show why immortal creatures did not feel emotions such as love and regret, for they would never see their friends again unless they too passed away.

"I met them many years ago," Amalthea continued, "during the time when I was the last unicorn."

Molly shook her head in disbelief, her gorgeous hair flying around her. "That can't be. How could you be the last? Unicorns have been around since the beginning of life, and will be around until life ends. How could you be the last?"

Amalthea sighed. "The greedy, unhappy King Haggard held a deep desire to possess all the unicorns in the world. He had a mighty servant of unknown origin and unspeakable power known as the Red Bull. I do not know what the Red Bull is, only that he is an unstoppable force of power that serves those that have no fear, such as Haggard. He chased all the unicorns to the ends of the earth, running close behind them to cover their footprints. He then drove them into the sea and trapped them within the tide, for Haggard to watch as he pleased. All the unicorns, all but me."

Molly wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. "How terrible."

"I eventually heard of what became of the rest of my kind and went in search of them. I soon met Schmendrick and Molly on my journey, who decided to aid me on my quest. And shortly after that, I met the Red Bull." She shivered at the memory of the beast. "He towered over me, as large as an elephant, and he had the horns of a wild ox. His body was as red as blood, and it glowed with red light in a way that made him appear as if he was up in flames. He was blind, but could somehow still see, but not the way we do. When in his presence, fear unlike anything I ever felt before filled me, and I knew that he would dominate me.

"Like the others, he drove me towards Haggard's castle, and may have sent me into the sea with the others had it not been for Schmendrick and his magic. He transformed me into a human girl. At this point the Red Bull left, having come for a unicorn and not a human." She shivered again. "I still remember it. The feeling of death surrounding my body as it very slowly but very surely began to age and die. Perhaps a good sixty years it would last, but for us immortals, that seems like nothing. There was also the rush of human emotions I experienced, and they frightened me greatly.

"But as much as I feared my new form, I knew that I would only be able to get near Haggard and the Bull in this form. And so we continued into Haggard's land until we met him." A look of longing appeared in her eyes. "And that is when I also met your father."

Molly's eyes widened as the thing she had longed to hear finally came. "Tell me of him."

Amalthea sighed. "My beloved Lir. I will never forget him. I remember him just as clearly as if I had just seen him." She looked at her daughter. "You have his eyes. The eyes of a human, yet so much more than human."

"Human?" Molly whispered, looking at her hands. "Human?"

"Of course." Amalthea said. "Your father was human, as was I at the time. He fell in love with me immediately and tried to win my heart. I avoided him at first, for I was still very frightened of everything that was happening. But my love for him eventually surfaced, and I could deny it no longer." She sighed again and turned her attention back to the moon. "There are times, even now, where I wish I had remained by his side as a human. That is my greatest regret. The life we could have had together. I had even made up my mind to remain a human, to age and die, just so I could be with him. But…" she paused for a moment, "but deep down we both knew this was not possible. If I did remain a human, all the other unicorns would remain trapped within the sea, and the world would no longer have them in it. And so, the next time we encountered the Red Bull, Schmendrick used his magic and changed me back.

"Once again, the Red Bull began to drive me into the sea. But Lir interfered. The Red Bull ran him down and he was killed." Loss and anger filled her eyes, as her daughter gasped in horror. "At that moment, seeing my love dead on the ground, all fear left me. The only thing that remained was my desire to stop the Red Bull's reign of terror. And so I attack, and the Red Bull backed away."

"He didn't fight?" asked Molly, surprised.

Amalthea shook her head. "No, the Red Bull never fights. He conquers all in his path, but he doesn't ever actually fight. When I refused to back down, he did. But I knew that he couldn't be killed. Unlike immortals such as you and I, he was something else. Something that truly was eternal. But I still drove him away, right into the sea like he did to the other unicorns. At that moment, they came back. The Red Bull became trapped in the tide and the unicorns were set free. They fled from their watery prison, and the Red Bull hasn't been seen since, nor will he ever be seen again.

"And then Haggard's castle collapsed as the unicorns stampeded around it. But even among the destruction of his fortress, I heard Haggard's final words. 'I knew you were the last'. And so I was, but no longer. There were unicorns in the world again. But the world seemed so empty without my love in it. And so I summoned Lir's soul back from the otherworld." She closed her eyes, and tears that a unicorn should not have been able to produce flowed down her cheeks. "But we could not be together. And so I fled before my love for him made me stay." She sighed sadly. "I never saw him again, and I never knew at the time, before I became a unicorn again, that I was with child. His child." She looked at her daughter. "You."

Molly hugged herself. "Me."

Amalthea leaned forward and rested her horn on her daughter's head. "Yes, my child. You. I do not truly know what you are, but I do know this, you are the result of true love. The love of an immortal and her one true love. We are unique, my child. We know and feel things that other immortals do not. We are immortals, yet part of us is human. Do not reject that part of us, for that is a very special part."

Molly's arms came up around her mother. "I do not reject it, Mother. And I do not hate you or Father for anything. You two loved each other. How could you think I would look down upon love?"

Amalthea smiled sadly. "Other immortals would not share your opinion. They would laugh or turn their nose at us, saying such a thing is not possible. But they are wrong; you are proof of that. They do not know love and could never understand."

Molly kissed her mother's nose. "How could they, Mother, they have no human in them. But I for one could never regret these feelings."

"Nor could I, my child." Amalthea said. She looked at the moon again, seeing Lir's smiling face. "Nor could I."

**THE END**

 

**Author's Note:**

> (A/N: Well, what do you think? I have no expectations. Like I said, it's just an idea that came to me and wouldn't leave me alone until it was written. So how was it? Like it, hate it? Let me know. I also have an image I made of her found at the website below.
> 
> https://www.deviantart.com/silverbuller/art/Amalthea-Centaur-449601513


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